I keep thinking: we do gap years too early. Nobody’s truly worn out by school. A gap year would be more use in your 50s. A year to learn woodwork, to Interrail, to dance, to volunteer. To do the life-enhancing stuff we drop as we age because we have less energy left after a day’s work. Pension age keeps rising. When we retire, we’ll be too tired for random new stuff. Now, we still have the energy to get more out of time off. So a paid gap year in your 50s, like parental leave, would be nice.